The present invention relates to voice recognition and more particularly to managing voice messages based on recognizable features of voice signals of the voice messages.
Although the first monograph on expression of emotions in animals and humans was written by Charles Darwin in the last century and psychologists have gradually cumulated knowledge in the field of emotion detection and voice recognition, it has attracted a new wave of interest recently by both psychologists and artificial intelligence specialists. There are several reasons for this renewed interest: technological progress in recording, storing and processing audio and visual information; the development of non-intrusive sensors; the advent of wearable computers; and the urge to enrich human-computer interface from point-and-click to sense-and-feel. Further, a new field of research in AI known as affective computing has recently been identified.
As to research on recognizing emotions in speech, on one hand, psychologists have done many experiments and suggested theories. On the other hand, AI researchers made contributions in the following areas: emotional speech synthesis, recognition of emotions and using agents for decoding and expressing emotions. Similar progress has been made with voice recognition.
In spite of the research on recognizing emotions in speech, the art has been devoid of methods and apparatuses that utilize emotion recognition and voice recognition for business purposes.
A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for managing voice messages based on emotion characteristics of the voice messages. First, a plurality of voice messages that are transferred over a telecommunication network are received. Thereafter, such voice messages are stored on a storage medium. An emotion associated with voice signals of the voice messages is then determined. The voice messages are organized based on the determined emotion. Access to the organized voice messages is then permitted.
In one aspect of the present invention, the voice messages may follow a telephone call. Further, the voice messages of a similar emotion may be organized together. As an option, the voice messages may be organized in real time immediately upon receipt over the telecommunication network.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a manner in which the voice messages are organized may be identified for facilitating access to the organized voice messages. Further, the emotion may be determined by extracting at least one feature from the voice signals for analysis purposes.